Refrigerator door fastener



Nov. 1, 1955 w. c. EVANS 2,722,446

REFRIGERATOR DOOR FASTENER Filed Oct- 27, 1953 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 IN V EN TOR.

By W 2am n Mm, PM; 22 MM Nov. 1, 1955 w, c EVANS 2,722,446

EFRIGERATOR DOOR FASTENER Filed Oct. 27

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hm, @Zhjgm United States Patent O REFRIGERATOR DOOR FASTENER Winfield C. Evans, Mount Airy, Md., assignor to Jamison Cold Storage Door Company, Hagerstown, Md., a corporation of Maryland Application October 27, 1953, Serial No. 388,636 2 Claims. (Cl. 292-336) The invention relates to new and useful improvements in a fastener for refrigerator doors. The patents granted David C. E. Leonard and John Vincent Jamison, Jr., February 21, 1939, No. 2,147,794 and J. V. Jamison, Jr., November 13, 1945, No. 2,389,056, show the type of fastener to which the present invention has been applied. The fastener of said prior patents includes a rigid keeper mounted on the door and a latch lever pivoted in a housing attached to the door frame so that the latch lever projects outwardly from said frame. A roller mounted on the keeper for the holding of the door closed. Springs under compression urge the roller out of the housing and into the path of the keeper. The keeper has inner and outer tapered faces intersecting to form a contact member. When the door is closed the inner tapered face first engages the roller and will force the latch lever inwardly' until the contact member passes the center of the roller and then the springs take over and force the roller outwardly onto the outer tapered face of the keeper and thus the door is forced into a tightly sealedposition. In this type of door fastener the door is closed by a hand push or pressure and often this force for closing the door is insufficient to carry the contact member of the keeper past dead center on the roller. Therefore, the springs will force the roller outward into contact With'the inner tapered face of the keeper and this will hold the door in partly opened position.

An object of the present invention is to provide a means associated with a latch lever of the above type for locking said latch lever in retracted position when the door is being closed and until the keeper has passed the high point on the roller after which the holding means is released so that the springs can take over and move the door to tightly sealed position by the engagement of the roller with the outer tapered surface of the keeper.

A further object of the invention is to provide a yieldable trigger mechanism which holds the latch lever in retracted position which trigger mechanism is engaged by the door after the keeper passes the high point on the roller after which the springs take over and move the door to tightly sealed position.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a trigger mechanism for automatically engaging the latch during the opening of the door for holding said latch lever retracted and out of the path of the keeper which trigger mechanism is released by the door when the door approaches closed position.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a view showing the improved fastener applied to the refrigerator door and to the frame associated therewith.

Figure 2 is a view looking into the housing in which is mounted the latch lever and also the trigger mechanlsm.

Figure 3 is a horizontal sectional view through a portion of the door and door frame showing a keeper mounted on the door and the latch lever and housing therefor mounted on the door frame. In this view the door ice has been moved towards closed position and the contact member of the keeper is on a line with the center of the roller or what might be called the high point of the roller. The trigger is still holding the latch lever in retracted position.

Figure 4 is a view similar to Figure 3 but showing the door as having moved to a position where the trigger is released from engagement with the latch lever and the roller is'moved onto the outer tapered face of the keeper and the springs are pressing the door to tightly sealed engagement with the door frame.

The keeper 1 is formed as an integral part of a supporting plate 2 which plate is secured to the door by bolts 11, 11 The keeper projects inwardly along the edge of the door 3. The inner face of the keeper 4 is tapered so as to incline outwardly away from the door. The outer face 5 of the keeper is tapered inwardly relative to the door and the two tapered faces intersect in a rounded contact member 6. The latch lever is mounted in a housing which includes side members 7, 7, and a top member 8 and a rear member 9. There are side members 10, 10 attached to or formed as part of the side members 7, 7 and which serve as a means whereby bolts 11, 11 may be employed for securing the housing to the door frame indicated at 12. These side members 10, 10 are slotted as indicated at 12 and this provides a means whereby the housing and the parts carried thereby may be shifted toward or from the edge of the door. The latch lever is indicated at 13. The latch lever includes spaced projecting members 14, 14. A pivot bolt 15 passes through these members 14, 14 and through the side walls of the housing. This serves as a pivotal support for the latch lever which is adjacent the frame and the latch lever projects outwardly therefrom. The latch lever has outwardly projecting arms 16, 16 disposed at the outer end portion thereof and a roller 17 is-mountedbetween these arms on a pivot rod 18. The body of the latch lever carries projecting lugs 19. There is a lug at each end of the body portion, that is, at each side .of the housing. There is a compression spring 20 associated with each lug 19; only one of the lugs and one spring is shown in the drawings. The other end of the compression spring bears against an inclined face 21 on a cross bar 22 supported by a bolt 23. The bolt extends up through a slot 24 in the housing and has a head 25 thereon to which a wrench may be attached for raising and lowering the cross bar 22. This cross bar has spaced lugs 26 which bear against the inner face of the rear wall 9 of the housing.

The spring 20, 20 as noted are compression springs and the extent to which the springs are compressed may be varied by turning'the bolt 23 so as to raise or lower the cross member 22.

Associated with the latch lever is a trigger 27 which is mounted on a pivot bolt 28 at its rear end. The trigger lever is provided with a rearwardly facing stop shoulder 29. The body portion of the latch lever has a forwardly facing abutment 30. There is a spring encircling the pivot bolt 28 having a forwardly projecting arm 31 which contacts the pivot bolt 15 and also a forwardly projecting arm 32 which engages underneath the part 33 of the trigger lever. This spring is so tensioned that the arm 32 tends to raise the trigger lever so as to bring the stop shoulder 29 into the path of movement of the abutment 30 on the latch lever and this will hold the latch lever from swinging forwardly through the action of the springs 20 thereon.

Assuming that the latch lever is in the position shown in Figure 3 with the trigger holding the latch lever in its retracted position it will remain in this position while the door is fully open and when the door is swung towards closed position the contact member 6 on the keeper will either pass the roller without touching the same or make slight contact therewith which is insuflicient to retard the closing of the door. When the roller is held retracted the door may be pushed toward closed position past the roller with a light push. As the door passes the roller it will contact the trigger 27 and move the same downward thus releasing the latch lever so that the springs 20 will force it forward into engagement with the contact member 6 and thence onto the tapered surface 5. This tapered surface is shown as curved so as to provide a gradual increasing pressure of the roller against the outer face of the keeper for tightly pressing the gasket 34 carried by the door into sealing contact with the door frame 12. The door will be held tightly closed by the springs and when it is desired to open the door a pulling force must be applied thereto sufiicient to overcome the action of the springs and permit the latch lever to be moved so that the contact member 6 will pass the dead center or high point of the roller. When the latch lever is in its fully retracted position to allow the door to pass, the trigger will be moved upwardly by the spring arm 32 into the path of the abutment 30 and thus it is that the latch lever will be held in retracted position. All the time that the door is in open position after the contact member on the keeper has passed the roller said latch lever will be held retracted.

It will be noted from the above that a door fastener has been devised wherein the door may be swung by a light push to near closed position where the trigger will be engaged by the door and the latch lever released so that the spring can take over and move the door to a tightly sealed position. This permits the compression springs to be adjusted so as to force the door into this tightly sealed position. It is true that when the compression on the springs are increased that more energy will have to be applied to open the door but this can be accomplished by the usual hand pulling mechanism which acts through a leverage in opening the door.

It is obvious that many changes in the details of construction and arrangement of parts may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A refrigerator door fastener comprising a latch lever pivotally mounted on the door frame, a roller carried by said latch lever, springs for moving the latch lever outwardly toward the door, a keeper rigidly mounted on the door and having an outer tapered face merging into a rounded contact member adapted to be engaged by said roller, means for holding the latch lever in retracted position and the roller out of the path of the keeper while the door is in full open position, means operated by the door as it approaches closed position for releasing said holding means, thereby permitting the springs to move the roller outwardly into engagement with the outer tapered face of the keeper for forcing the door to tightly closed position, the pivotal support for said latch lever being disposed so that on the initial opening movement of the door the keeper will force the latch to a retracted position and release said holding means for engagement with the latch for holding the same retracted.

2. In a refrigerator door fastener comprising a latch lever pivotally mounted on the door frame, a roller carried by said latch lever, springs for moving the latch lever outwardly toward the door, a keeper rigidly mounted on the door and having an outwardly tapered face merging into a rounded contact member adapted to be engaged by said roller, a trigger lever engaging a lug on the latch lever for holding said latch lever in retracted position, a spring for moving the trigger lever into engagement with said lug, said trigger lever being extended into the path by movement of the door as it approaches closed position so that the door operating through the trigger lever will release the latch and permit the springs to move the roller of the latch outwardly for forcing the door to tightly closed position, the pivotal support for said latch lever being disposed so that on the initial opening movement of the door the keeper will force the latch to a retracted position and release the trigger lever forholding engagement with the latch.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,147,794 Leonard et al. Feb. 21, 1939 2,359,150 Peglow Sept. 26, 1944 2,389,056 Jamison Nov. 13, 1945 

